Beirut announces new album, streams first single

It’s been nearly four years since Zach Condon’s worldly folk project Beirut has released a proper album, with only 2009’s March Of The Zapotec/Holland EP to tide fans over in the meantime. But today sees an official August 30 release date for the new The Rip Tide, which Condon has called a “sunny” album that departs from both the French cabaret-inspired musings of 2007’s The Flying Club Cup and his most recent record’s mix of Mexican church band-assisted marches and electronic pop. You can hear first single “East Harlem” below, which is all about the Black Panthers. Okay, not really.